Exodus 30:17-21

THE BRONZE LAVER

"And Jehovah spake unto Moses, saying, Thou shalt also make a laver of brass, whereat to wash. And thou shalt put it between the tent of meeting and the altar, and thou shalt put water therein. And Aaron and his sons shall wash their hands and their feet thereat: when they go into the tent of meeting, they shall wash with water, that they die not; or when they come near to the altar to minister, to burn an offering made by fire unto Jehovah. So shall they wash their hands and their feet, that they die not: and it shall be a statute forever to them, even to him and to his seed throughout their generations."

"And Jehovah spake unto Moses, saying, Thou shalt also make a laver of brass ..." (Exodus 30:18). There are numerous examples in the Pentateuch of slight variations in the form of God's commandments. As the Holy Spirit indeed has told us, "God, having of old time spoken unto the fathers in the prophets by divers portions and in divers manners." The meaning of this statement is simply that God did not always use exactly the same words in giving his commands. Despite this elementary truth, concerning which no scholar should be ignorant, Canon George Harford used the slight variation here as an excuse for denying the passage: "This passage is an obvious supplement, for it should have come after the law of the altar ...it is moreover a fragment, as its opening should be `And thou shalt make'."[25]

Exodus 38:8 reveals the source of the brass (bronze) from which the laver was constructed. The women of Israel, apparently nearly all of them, had brought brass mirrors with them out of Egypt, the highly-polished metal being the only type of mirror known at that time, and they contributed these personal items so highly prized by them for the making of the bronze altar.

"Wash their hands and their feet ..." (Exodus 30:19). These ceremonial washings were a ceremony the Jews enjoyed, and they later extended it to include many kinds of ablutions, even for pots and pans, and many such things (Mark 7:3-4). Also, there were occasions when the washings were not at all confined to hands and feet, but were of the whole body (Exodus 29:4; Leviticus 16:4). The washing (or, immersing) of the whole body on the occasion of the priest's ordination is without doubt the forerunner and type of Christian baptism. There are three N.T. passages that mention "the laver" as a means of the Christian's cleansing (Titus 3:5; Ephesians 5:26; and Hebrews 10:22). This proves that Christian baptism is a literal washing (immersing) in actual water. The assertion by some that Christian baptism "is a spiritual thing" is denied by the emphatic truth that "the laver" is an actual, not a spiritual, device. Others who suppose that, "It is the WORD in which Christians are washed," are corrected by the injunction that persons drawing near to God must have "their BODIES washed in pure water" (Hebrews 10:22). The Lord sent Ananias to penitent Saul of Tarsus, and he said to Saul, "Arise, and be baptized, and wash away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord" (Acts 22:16). "Note that the inner cleansing from sins occurred at the same time as the outer washing of baptism."[26]